Faking It

Courtney just wrote a post on bloggers being real (http://www.storingupteasures.com/) and how it's easy to post a false "togetherness" that isn't reality. I try really hard to not present that we have it all together, because that is so, so, so not the case. I loathe the idea that people think we adopted because we were doing so well with our first four biological children that we were sure we should parent more. Our adopting has nothing to do with our parenting skills and everything to do with the fact that there are 143 million orphans that need families. When it's all said and I'm feeling very discouraged, I always come back to the reality that we are a better family than no family at all!

I'm thankful we don't have any HUGE problems, but we certainly have our share of "issues." I would love to blog on and on about my frustrations with a couple of my children that are in therapy (or need to be) but I don't feel that I can in fairness to them. Years from now, they will read these posts and I don't want extra therapy bills due to my blog! It's sometimes a tough call to post honestly and yet respect those in our lives that are are "victims" of blog-land.

What I can do is rat on myself. So, there are days, like today, that I took a shower, but never put on any make-up or brushed my hair. There are days that my kids sleep in their clothes. There are many times that my girls need hair attention for a full week before I get to it. I don't do kiddie-crafts, nor am I any good at teaching my girls to cook or sew. I really admire people who work home-ec into their homeschool, but I have a tough enough time getting my crew through the basics! I also really admire the organic Moms who feed their children perfectly and I'm trying to move in a more healthy direction, but I'm a long-shot from organic. When Elijah was born, I looked into the cute clothes diapers that the "cool" moms use, but I settled for my on-going habit of filling land-fills with mounds of Huggies. I am always impressed with the Moms that feed their family well on $350 a month, but I still spent over $1000; I really have never figured out how they do it. I'm known to say on an almost daily basis, "I'm on overload" and occasionally I do yell.

I could go on and on, but I'll conclude with a picture that says a thousand words - my school room on any given day, rest assured the rest of the house falls along the same lines.

On a humorous note, my husband read the kind words that my friend Steffany wrote about me when she gave me the bloggy award. It was something along the lines of balancing structure and still being fun. He chuckled and I jumped all over him, I mean nicely inquired to the reason he laughed; his reason was that he didn't think it's always well balanced. Great, one more thing to work on!

(For those of you bloggers who are contemplating writing a "real" post, such as this one, know the secret to controling my stress lies in chocolate hidden in my closet.)

Awards and Such

If you've never "met" my friend, Steffany, I can only say that she is a modern day activist. I "met" her when she set out to adopt siblings from Liberia. Her little girl passed away, so she raised funds to build a baby home in her name. Then she adopted twins from Ethiopia and brought home a pregnant lady that she didn't know, but needed medical care to prevent losing the baby. She let her live with her for like a year, funded the hospital bills then funded her return (with healthy baby) to Ethiopia to be reunited with her husband. She then started a group called Because Every Mother Matters which helps Moms in need - one by one. She recently helped a mother of three receive the very needed surgery to correct the fact that she had lived a few years with her uterus outside of her body.

You can visit Steffany here - Steffany

Steffany was kind enough to award me these two blog awards. I'm supposed to list 10 things that make me happy and pass the awards on to 10 other bloggers.

So, 10 things that make me happy are:

1. My salvation and my identity in Christ.

2. My husband

3. My 9 children

4. My plethora of pets

5. Good home cooking (and baking)

6. Reading blogs

7. All things Africa

8. Family trips

9. A clean house (doesn't happen too often)

10. My sister moving near us

I'm passing this on to 5 (for now) blogs that I always read:

HisHandsHisFeet -

K. is an adoptive mom of 10, two which are from the same orphanage in Liberia as my three.

Courtney at www.storinguptreasures.com

Courtney is also a mother of 10 also and always a joy to read.

BakersDozen

Renee is a mother of almost 14; she also has three children from Liberia.

APlaceCalledSimplicity

Linny will never know I nominated here since she has 10,000 readers but she is an inspiration.

Ginny

Ginny takes beautiful pictures and inspires me to appreciate all that is around me.

Simple Saturday

We had a simple Saturday, which always includes some cleaning and laundry. The cool thing is that it's the first Saturday this year that I didn't have any room waiting for me to paint! Aunt Deb came over for the day; then her room-mate came for dinner. Whenever Aunt Deb comes, lots of laundry comes with her. Lucky for her, Julia is a whiz with the Spray and Wash bottle. I'm quite sure it takes Deb twice as long with her dedicated helper, but she's always a good sport.

Since it was a nice day, we headed out for a walk. It was the first time that we let Elijah walk instead of pulling out the stroller. He was pretty thrilled with the plan. JD took this picture of Elijah holding my and Deb's hands.

Elijah can really run these days; here he is trying to catch up to "his big kids."

Here's Tori playing along the way -


Aunt Deb cleaning the dirt off Elijah's hands (at his request) -

And Alyssa and Elijah heading home -

It's so amazing to me that little people can grow and learn so much in 19 months of life!

Lunchtime Antics

What could I possibly say to accompany these pictures from lunch yesterday?

I could say that it's unusual for us to eat with Elijah on the table (but that wouldn't be true.)

I'll stick with pointing out that he is the 9th child and we are just enjoying every minute of his babyhood, because we really realize how short it is. That's the truth.

He is our normal center-piece and lunch-time entertainer and he does pretty well at not knocking the dishes to the floor. I guess this is a true testimony to how laid-back I'm capable of being - not in everything, but in the things that don't really matter.

Transracial Adoption

I'm finishing a book that my friend sent to me called, Adopted for Life, authored by Russell Moore. It is primarily about the church's responsibility with adoption and the orphan crises. Frankly, I think there are very, very few churches that view adoption the way that it should be viewed - as the ultimate act of "religion." Frankly, it is so much easier to sponsor a child or go on a short-term mission trip than it is to commit your entire life to a child. While a bowl of rice or a VBS program is beneficial, it still doesn't provide the orphan what he really needs - a family.

I've also been discouraged how open some people are to Asian or Latino descended children, but not African. You also wouldn't believe how many times I've kindly had people explain that they couldn't do what we did, because their Great Aunt Ethel or their parents or whoever is just too prejudice. My thoughts are, "get over it," but they seem to think it disqualifies them from even considering a child of African descent.

Russell Moore writes (on page 157)... "For some Christians, though, the concern is about family members and how they'll react to a child of a different race. I've seen young couples convulsing in tears on the couch in my office, asking how they can love their new child and honor their father and mother at the same time. I've seen family members of every race and every region of the country turn up their noses at the idea of a niece, nephew or grandchild of another ethnicity, usually with some highly spiritual rhetoric about honoring father and mother or about 'best interest of the child' or a thousand other reasons."

"What I'm surprised by is how many of these extended family members are deacons or women's ministry directors or ushers or Sunday school teachers in their church. They're blissfully unaware, it seems, that what's resting on them is the spirit of the antichrist. They seem not to comprehend that their own devotion to their flesh would disqualify non-Semitic folks like them from the promises of God. If Jesus agreed with them on adoption and race, they'd be in hell."

"One of the most chilling comments I've ever heard is from an adopting white family told by a relative that he wouldn't have a black child in his family tree. When the young couple gently told the relative he was in sin and that, should he go to heaven, he'll be around a lot of persons of color, the man replied, "Well, then I'll have a long time to learn how to love them." Well, no, sir, you won't have that long. The Bible says you have a very short time - short as a vapor - to learn to love your brothers and sisters. The Bible tells us, "We know we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death." (I John 3:14)

Moore concludes.... "If your relatives love their bigotry more than your child, speak to them lovingly but directly, just as you would if they were caught in any other sin. But don't give them veto power to your family."

My sentiments exactly!

Hanging up my Paint Apron

I'm finally finished with my painting - for a while anyway. I am saving the master bedroom, retreat and bathroom for next winter and I'm planning on painting the mud-room and mud-bathroom when we move the washer and dryer downstairs to the unfinished laundry room. So, for now it feels good and it wasn't as tough with the kids as I suspected it would be.

I painted the downstairs part of the stairwell today. The upstairs is "sage white" and the basement is "map paper." Now we have to figure out what to do with the actual stairs, they are still quite unfinished.

There are 13 children at my house tonight, what do you make for dinner with 13 kids?

Biggest Brother

Elijah is always happy when his biggest brother, Gabriel, comes home from work. Gabriel is homeschooling his senior year of high-school and life-guarding at two pools, so he isn't here enough for Elijah's liking. I snapped these today when Gabriel came in the door.


I'm happy it's the weekend! So is Elijah and Gabriel.

Large Family Ideas

It seems I'm running a race of cooking, dishes, laundry and clutter. I'm almost finished painting the up-stairs and the clutter is really getting to me. It seems that every surface has a resident pile. So, after I paint the stairwell this weekend, I guess I'll make my annual "spring cleaning and organizing list." With this size house, everything should be able to find a home other than the kitchen counters!

Here's my new idea for all the hats, mittens and scarves. I've used a shoe organizer inside the coat closet for years to hold them all, however, the problem has been that the kids stuff their items anywhere there is space and then they pull them out all over the floor looking for their particular gloves. So, I labeled two pockets for each person; now everyone should be able to find what they are looking for without disturbing everyone else's things.

My only other good idea of the moment is cookies - chocolate chip, m&m, oatmeal cookies. The problem is that I've been making them too often!

Tonight is Tori hair night, so I have lots and lots of little corn-rows to get out today, (while I do school, shuffle piles, put away laundry, run to the Chiropractor and grocery shop.) Maybe I should start mission impossible by ending this blog entry! Have a good day!

Tori's Valentines

Here's two of Tori's Valentine cards; she enlisted Moriah to write what she dictated. I don't know where she got these ideas, but they cracked us up. Mine says, "This is a lil boy in Candy Land (the game).... he loves you, but he can't find you. He won't miss you if he can find you. Happy Valentine's Day, Tori"

She drew (and dictated) this one for Alei. It says, "This is Plankton's Dad! (from Spongebob Squarepants) He's carrying a back-pack so he can steal crabby patties. Happy Valentine's Alei, Tori"

A bit more creative than the traditional Valentine card, huh? We won't get into the whole Spongebob debate as I really dislike the show, but my children love it.

Happy Balentines Day

Happy Valentines (or Balentines) Day from all of us. Moriah set the little people up for pictures yesterday.

Elijah took a few, then went on to more important business.

Tori and Julia are good little models.


Of course, they also tend to get a bit silly.

Here's an example of Tori's big eyes and Julia's big smile.

Have a blessed day with those you love.